Musician Moment

Jeff Work

Principal Trumpet

At this moment …

We would find Jeff out and about exploring his new city, especially the many
wonderful places to walk and hike. “I try to take a good walk almost
every day… It clears my head, fills my lungs, and replenishes my energy.
I’m looking forward to really knowing my way around the Hoyt Arboretum
and Forest Park.”

On the CD player …

“CD player??? What about my LP’s and 78’s?” exclaims
Jeff, who loves (and collects) old classical recordings. The work of the conductor
Bruno Walter, and that of many legendary singers and instrumentalists, takes
the high spots on his favorites list. “The early decades of recorded
sound were a very fertile period in music making. People played with great
character and expression in those days.” For a change of pace, Jeff also
enjoys jazz (older and newer) and you might occasionally find a Tom Lehrer
album playing too!

In the kitchen …

“I can handle a wok fairly well,” says Jeff. “And I make a
pretty mean chocolate mousse. Beyond that—and the fact that I make the best
scrambled eggs on the planet—I wouldn’t presume.” Actually, his
favorite kitchen activity is getting on the phone with friends and figuring
out where they’ll be meeting for dinner.

On the music stand …

The trumpet concerto his friend Jim Stephenson wrote for him (and which he’ll
be playing again next year), the music for upcoming Oregon Symphony concerts,
and a stack of favorite etude books. Jeff takes pleasure in continual improvement. “The
better I get, the more I realize how much I still have to learn,” he
says, adding, “Music is a bit like golf… It’s something you’ll
never fully master; the joy of it is in the trying.”

On the night stand …

The current issue of Harper’s Magazine, a book on the history
of the trumpet given as a going-away present by his best student in Boston,
and To Kill a Mockingbird, which he’s just read for the first
time.

Before you left …

Jeff would probably tell you one more joke. “So, you must have heard
the one about the skeleton who walks into a bar and says, ‘Give me a
beer and a mop!’...”

Posted October 2006

Jeff Work joined the Oregon Symphony as Principal Trumpet at the start of the 2006-2007 season. For the past 13 years, he lived and worked as a freelance musician in Boston, performing and recording a wide variety of music. He plans to continue spending the summer season as Principal Trumpet of the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder, a position he has held since 1999.